


Fight for those whose fight was halted

by harryisqueen



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: F/F, Gen, Pride, Shooting, festival shooting, pride fest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-25
Updated: 2019-06-25
Packaged: 2020-05-19 18:23:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19362133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/harryisqueen/pseuds/harryisqueen
Summary: PRIDE fest takes a turn for the worse.





	Fight for those whose fight was halted

**Author's Note:**

> TW; shootings, referenced shootings, homophobic slurs

It had taken Cheryl forever to accept herself for who truly was and who she always had been.

Since she was a small child she always associated being gay with evil, manipulative things.

This, however, wasn’t entirely her fault.

Her mother always made sure Cheryl knew how disgusting she found those of the LGBT community.

Further complicating her feeling with her sexuality everyone in middle school always chose to target those who they deemed acted too gay.

Cheryl then found herself paranoid.

She was always on the defence making sure she wasn’t staring at the wrong gender.

She had to keep her eyes focused on the boys in her school.

As long as she could do that she’d keep her social rank and wouldn’t be seen as the filthy person she felt she was.

She somehow did manage to repress every feeling she ever felt towards a girl.

Then 7th grade came along and her world was rocked.

To start off the year a girl was kicked out of her uncle’s house and had to move to the Southside.

Said girl became the talk of the school.

She was disgusting, filthy and vile for liking girls and her getting kicked out of her uncle’s home was her own fault.

Cheryl now would be ashamed to admit it but back then she was more than willing to join in on the taunting of the poor girl.

Heather came along at the end of 7th grade and it was the best few months of Cheryl’s life.

She found herself truly happy for the first time in a while.

For once she wasn’t repressing every feeling she was feeling and it felt wonderful.

That was until her vile mother once again came along and ruined everything for Cheryl.

From that day forward she went back to that ice cold place of self-hatred and repression.

Then sophomore year came along and she found herself infatuated with a girl.

Deep down Cheryl knew the feelings were not reciprocated but she still found herself obsessed her thirst for someone to just love her and tell her that everything she was wasn’t vile or disgusting was so strong she ended up bombing the friendship she did have with Josie.

Then Toni came and Cheryl swore she could finally just breathe because for the first time in 16 years it felt as if she didn’t have to hide who she was.

For once she truly didn’t care what her mother or anyone else thought of her because she was so content to just be with Toni.

That’s how she managed to muster up the courage to go to PRIDE in Riverdale with her girlfriend.

13-year-old Cheryl would cry if she knew that she was finally able to be herself.

She left like she was walking on clouds as she walked around PRIDE with not only her girlfriend but her newfound friends that felt like the wonderful & loving family she never had.

Cheryl couldn’t help the giddiness inside her.

She was finally able to truly be who she had always been.

Finally, happy.

Cheryl should’ve known that something was going to wrong because next thing she knew she heard a loud noise and suddenly Toni’s entire body was atop Cheryl’s shielding her from whatever the previous loud noise might have been.

Cheryl found herself holding her breath once her brain had processed what that noise had been.

Gunshots.

She could hear multiple people screaming.

The ones she heard the loudest were “The fags, trannies and dykes must die. We do this in the name of the lord so that we all may not be damned.” Followed by more gunshots.

Cheryl wasn’t sure how long she stayed pressed against the pavement under Toni’s body but during those moments she swore she was going to die.

If not her then her friends or Toni.

She could feel Toni’s body shaking above her.

She could hear the cries of the people around her.

She just wanted it to all be over.

Then she heard the sirens and it felt as if she just exhaled then there was 1 final gunshot then quiet.

Her ears were ringing and she felt as if she couldn’t breathe.

She felt Toni roll off her and as she sat up she looked around herself and saw all the destruction around her.

People were crying.

People were hurt.

People were dead.

Oh god, people were dead.

Suddenly she couldn’t breathe.

People were dead because of who they loved.

This wasn’t fair none of it was fair.

“Cheryl please look at me.”

Cheryl could hear Toni’s garbled voice and through her tears her eyes found Toni’s panicked and concerned ones looking back at her.

“Baby are you alright?” Cheryl could see the tears glistening in the corners of Toni’s eyes.

“I’m fine. Are you okay?” Cheryl asked with a shaky breath.

“I’m okay.”

Cheryl could still feel her heart thumping a million miles a minute.

Someone came to this parade meant for self-expression and love for everyone and destroyed it.

It made everything feel not worth it.

People died today and the only reason for this was someone had far too much hate inside them.

Short hours passed as everyone who was previously at the festival was checked out and paramedics reminded Cheryl how lucky she was to be safe.

She couldn’t stick around much after that so she made her way to her car and slid into the driver’s seat deciding to wait on her girlfriend there.

“I can see your brain running on autopilot Cher.”

Cheryl pulled herself out of her thoughts to look over at her girlfriend.

“Everything just feels so not worth it TT. People died today simply because they love people with no regrets. It’s not fair.”

“Cher the reason we continue to have pride fests and continue to be loud and proud about our sexuality is because of people out there who are blinded by hate but their hate fuels us to continue fighting for everyone whose life was cut off for trying to fight and their deaths will never be fair and that’s why we continue to fight.”

**Author's Note:**

> First, I want to preface this by saying I'm not trying to make light of shootings or anything of that sort I'm trying to shine a light on a serious thing that isn't talked about enough. People are killed, abused, yelled at etc for their sexuality or gender identity. This issue needs to be dealt with more efficiently and effectively because people ARE dying.
> 
> I'd also just like to say I did reference the fact that the shooter was doing said shooting for God and I'd just like to say don't believe Westboro's agenda and anyone else who uses the Christian faith to defend their hatred.  
> They're blinded by tradition and mistranslated verses. 
> 
> Jesus loves and accepts everyone no matter what and your existence is NOT a sin. 
> 
> Never let anyone tell you any different.
> 
>  
> 
> [My tumblr](http://www.harryisqu33n.tumblr.com)


End file.
